Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is characterized by the presence of two or more personalities. National Alliance on Mental Illness' 2016 article goes in depth on what DID is, the symptoms, how to support someone with DID and how to treat this disorder. "Dissociative disorders are characterized by an involuntary escape from reality characterized by a disconnect between thoughts, identity, consciousness and memory." DID can affect any nationality, age and socioeconomic background. NAMI also states "It's estimated that 2% of people experience dissociative disorders, with women being more likely than men to be diagnosed." Symptoms usually develop after a traumatic experience to keep the memories at bay. For example, abuse or combat. Sometimes, stressful situations can affect the disorder negatively and cause problems with everyday functions. This could be the way they talk to someone or whether or not they shower everyday, like they used to. DID is a disorder that abruptly occurs.
The DSM-5 goes into detail about what criteria a person has to have in order for them to be diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. First, "a person must have two or more distinct identities or personality states are present, each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to and thinking about the environment and self." This states that a person must have distinct personality change. For example, someone could be a shy person for a couple days and then all of a sudden they could become a little kid, which has no idea what is going on most of the time. The second criteria is: "amnesia must occur, defined as gaps of in the recall of everyday events, important personal information and/or traumatic events." An example of this would be someone forgetting where they live after living there for twenty years. The amnesia they are talking about is when someone forgets something that someone should never forget. Another criteria for this disorder is: "the person must be distressed by the disorder or have trouble functioning in one or more major life areas because of this disorder." This is a common criteria that is found in all mental illness diagnoses. The final criteria that the person must have is; "the symptoms are not due to the direct psychological effects of a substance (such as blackouts or chaotic behavior during alcohol intoxication) or a general medical condition (such as complex partial seizures)." It is more appropriate to diagnose alcohol consumption or a medical condition because those are easier to treat and let alone when someone is told they have a serious disorder they start the denial process.
There are three different treatment options for dissociative identity disorder. First, psychotherapy is a popular choice of treatment. According to Psych Central psychotherapy "approaches vary widely, but generally take an individual modality (as opposed to family, group, or couple therapy) and emphasize the integration of the various personality states, into one, cohesive whole personality." Another treatment option is medications. Medication is rarely given due to the fact it is hard to maintain taking them when having a disorder where one minute your are yourself and the next you are someone completely different. If medications are given because of a psychiatric condition, then it should be carefully monitored to make sure the person stays healthy and on the medications, at all times. The last treatment option is self-help which is where people with the same disorder come together to form self-help support groups through larger communities and online. There is always help out there, whether you want it or not. Someone in a community close to yours could be going through the same thing and the people affected might never know until they find help. Help is not a bad thing. Asking for help shows that you are strong and that you are ready to take back your life. If you know someone or you think you might have DID please find help. There are therapists all over the world that can properly diagnose the disorder, so you aren't left in the dark thinking you have something you don't.